Teacher Retirement System of Texas Purchases Shares of 5,644 Westlake Corp. (NYSE:WLK)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in Westlake Corp. (NYSE:WLK) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,644 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $565,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 251.1% in the first quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 316 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 46.6% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 551,766 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $55,166,000 after purchasing an additional 175,306 shares in the last quarter. Total Wealth Planning & Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 51.3% in the first quarter. Total Wealth Planning & Management Inc. now owns 3,965 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,344 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 4.6% in the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 12,253 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,226,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 39.3% in the first quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 26,171 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,618,000 after purchasing an additional 7,382 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Westlake from $135.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Westlake from $110.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Westlake from $88.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Westlake from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.77.

Westlake Stock Down 0.4%

WLK opened at $81.39 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $77.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.23. The company has a market cap of $10.44 billion, a PE ratio of 27.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.72 and a beta of 0.91. Westlake Corp. has a 1 year low of $68.55 and a 1 year high of $153.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a current ratio of 2.63.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.31) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($1.01). Westlake had a return on equity of 4.19% and a net margin of 3.23%. The business had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.34 EPS. Westlake’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Westlake Corp. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Westlake Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 20th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 20th. Westlake’s payout ratio is currently 70.47%.

About Westlake

Westlake Corporation engages in the manufacture and marketing of performance and essential materials, and housing and infrastructure products in the United States, Canada, Germany, China, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Taiwan, and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Performance and Essential Materials and Housing and Infrastructure Products.